New Dune Books Resume StoryBest-selling author Kevin J. Anderson told SCI FI Wire that he and Brian Herbert based the sequel novels Hunters of Dune and the forthcoming Sandworms of Dune on notes for Dune 7 written by Brian's father, Dune creator Frank Herbert, prior to his 1986 death. "We saw that Dune 7 would have been an epic that we didn't think we could tell in under 1,400 pages, so we broke it into two 700-page volumes," Anderson said in an interview. "In the last eight months I've been writing a blog on Dunenovels.com, describing the progress of the two volumes. We've been getting 1.7 million hits per month, so the excitement among the fans worldwide is really building." Unlike the previous Anderson/Herbert collaborations, which were all prequels to Dune, Hunters of Dune picks up where the last Frank Herbert Dune novel left off. "In Chapterhouse Dune, the galaxy is being overrun by a group of evil, destructive women called the Honored Matres, sort of the dark counterparts of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood," Anderson said. "They are enslaving populations, destroying planets, and at the end of the book we learn that the Honored Matres are actually on the run from an unidentified outside 'Enemy' that's even worse. Our main characters steal a ship as large as a city, destroy their navigation system and fly off into uncharted territory with the mysterious Enemy searching for them. That's where the book ends, and that's where fans were left for many years." Anderson added: "In Hunters (and the subsequent volume, Sandworms), we follow Duncan Idaho and his comrades aboard the giant fleeing ship, trying to keep away from the Enemy, because they know that something or someone aboard the ship holds the key to ending the great coming war and changing the universe. Meanwhile, the surviving Bene Gesserits try to rally the rest of humanity to make their final stand against a force that intends to exterminate them." Anderson said that Frank Herbert's notes included a description of the story and a great deal of character background information. "But having a roadmap of the U.S. and actually driving across the country are two different things," he said. "Brian and I had a lot to work with and a lot to expand, now that we had Frank's original six novels and our six prequels to wrap up." Although Hunters and Sandworms will conclude the original series as envisioned by Frank Herbert, Anderson and Brian Herbert plan to continue exploring the Dune universe. "We have already sold the first volume in the Paul of Dune trilogy, which will tell the story of Paul's younger years, his friendship with Duncan and Gurney and Duke Leto's War of Assassins against Grumman," Anderson said. "And it will also fill in the story between Dune and Dune Messiah, Paul's great Jihad, Princess Irulan's task of building the legend of Muad'Dib, Shaddam's bid for a return to power: Certainly there's enough to fill a couple of books!"

This companion volume to Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction classic collects manuscript material, correspondence and cut chapters related to Dune as well as previously published Dune-related short stories coauthored by his son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson. Particularly interesting are texts related to Dune's publication, including letters, reviews and press releases that acknowledge the dizzying scope of the ambitious novel. Its length meant that Herbert had a hard time placing it, and he ended up selling it to automotive-guide publisher Chilton, but its publication-and the awards it won-ushered in a new era for science fiction publishing. The sheer novelty of Dune stands in contrast to B. Herbert and Anderson's Spice Planet, an alternate Dune novelette constructed from Herbert's original notes and a by-the-numbers action-adventure of interest only in contrast to the book Herbert ultimately wrote. Three of B. Herbert and Anderson's short stories bridge some of the events in their coauthored novel prequels; the fourth takes place during one of the battles in Dune and provides an interesting point-of-view switch. Although this miscellany of material fails to cohere, the glimpse it provides into Herbert's thoughts and the difficulty of writing and publishing illuminate one of the most important SF novels ever published.

Gillossen,mercredi 23 août 2006, 14:23 a écrit :Eh bien, ça y est, c'est dispo... Et j'avais tellement déconnecté de l'actualité de Dune que j'avais même raté cette sortie :

This companion volume to Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction classic collects manuscript material, correspondence and cut chapters related to Dune as well as previously published Dune-related short stories coauthored by his son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson. Particularly interesting are texts related to Dune's publication, including letters, reviews and press releases that acknowledge the dizzying scope of the ambitious novel. Its length meant that Herbert had a hard time placing it, and he ended up selling it to automotive-guide publisher Chilton, but its publication-and the awards it won-ushered in a new era for science fiction publishing. The sheer novelty of Dune stands in contrast to B. Herbert and Anderson's Spice Planet, an alternate Dune novelette constructed from Herbert's original notes and a by-the-numbers action-adventure of interest only in contrast to the book Herbert ultimately wrote. Three of B. Herbert and Anderson's short stories bridge some of the events in their coauthored novel prequels; the fourth takes place during one of the battles in Dune and provides an interesting point-of-view switch. Although this miscellany of material fails to cohere, the glimpse it provides into Herbert's thoughts and the difficulty of writing and publishing illuminate one of the most important SF novels ever published.

Après le succès des trilogies d’Avant Dune et de Dune, La Genèse, ce nouveau livremarque une césure dans l’entreprise de Brian Herbert et Kevin J. Anderson. La Route de Dune, qui va retenir l’attention de tous les passionnés du cycle, contient un court roman, La Planète de l’Épice, rédigé à partir des notes de Frank Herbert lui-même sur un avant-projet de Dune, et quatre nouvelles signées Brian Herbert et Kevin J. Anderson. Mais on y trouve aussi des textes inédits de Frank Herbert (lettres, extraits de manuscrits…) qui éclairent sa personnalité et soulignent l’immense travail accompli pour produire Dune, son premier succès, un monument de la sciencefiction et un best-seller mondial.

Avec Les Chasseurs de Dune, l’audacieuse entreprise de Brian Herbert et Kevin J. Anderson de redonner vie au monde créé par Frank Herbert touche presque à sa fin. La conclusion du cycle, attendue par des millions de lecteurs, ne devrait pas les décevoir…Après la trilogie Avant Dune (qui racontait les évènements précédant directement Dune), et après une seconde trilogie, Dune : la Genèse (qui narrait le terrible combat de dix millénaires plus ancien opposant l’humanité aux Machines Pensantes), Brian Herbert et Kevin J. Anderson avaient réuni, dans La Route de Dune, des textes inédits et des documents, dont certains de la main de Frank Herbert.Aujourd’hui, ils se proposent – enfin – de compléter et terminer le cycle de Dune. Herbert avait indiqué son intention de donner une conclusion à son roman. Ses deux héritiers littéraires disent avoir retrouvé un plan et des notes détaillées dont ils se sont inspirés ici.Le dernier volume de Dune, La Maison des Mères, laissait l’action en suspens. Les redoutables Honorées Matriarches avaient surgi du fond de l’espace, fuyant un terrible Ennemi, détruit à tout jamais la planète Dune et ses vers, source de l’épice, et presque réussi à subvertir l’ordre du Bene Gesserit. Mais d’où venaient-elles ? Quel fléau fuyaient-elles ? Et comment allait se conclure leur conflit avec les restes de l’Ancien Empire ? Voici enfin la réponse à ces questions…

Sandworms Wraps Dune CycleBest-selling SF author Brian Herbert—whose latest novel (co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson), Sandworms of Dune, is the SCI FI Essential book for August—told SCI FI Wire that the book is the grand conclusion to Frank Herbert's original Dune cycle. "[Sandworms of Dune] follows our heroes as they flee across the universe, being chased by an unknown force," Brian Herbert said in an interview. "In Hunters of Dune—the first book of [the] grand finale—we reveal one of the great secrets, and [now] in Sandworms of Dune we reveal another very big secret that was never revealed by Frank Herbert." Sandworms features many of the characters from the first Dune book, but because thousands of years have passed since then, they are actually "gholas"—clones of the original characters, Brian Herbert said. "They have been recreated from cellular material, but they have some of the same characteristics of the originals," he said. Back in the 1950s and '60s, Frank Herbert had been unable to sell several mystery stories he'd written, so it was suitable that he was able to spin a great mystery into his last Dune novel, Chapterhouse Dune, Herbert said. "The mystery was that some great powerful force is chasing the Honored Matres across the universe," he said. "In turn the Honored Matres are chasing the Bene Gesserit. It's this great science fiction mystery, and I think a lot of Dune fans will know what I am talking about without any more elaboration." When Frank Herbert died in 1986, his son Brian did not know the answer to that mystery, he said. "I didn't know what was chasing the Honored Matres, what this horrible force was that could destroy these women who were so vicious and so powerful," Brian Herbert said. "But 11 years after Dad died I found these notes—there are about 30 or 35 pages of notes—and with those notes Kevin J. Anderson and I were able to craft the story that Frank Herbert had not been able to write." In rereading the Dune books written by his father, Herbert found certain details that reminded him of their father-son relationship, he said. "I'm not very much like Paul, but I see a lot of Duke Leto in my father," Herbert said. "I see a lot of him as I reread the books, so it's rewarding in that regard [even] without writing them." Herbert and Anderson are currently working on the first in a new series of Dune books—Paul of Dune—which will take place between Dune and Dune Messiah, Herbert said. "There's a 12-year period in which Paul Atreides is the emperor of the universe, and there's this great jihad that takes place in his name, and billions of people are killed," Herbert said. "So we're setting it in that time period during that jihad, when all this violence is occurring around Paul, and there will be some backstory [exploring his youth]." —John Joseph Adams